PLAY_LAND

In collaboration with

Christine Wolf, wbp Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Bochum

Dietmar Rieks, Banz + Riecks Architekten BDA, Bochum

Dirk Wisnewski, Jugendtreff Holten

Stefan Breuer, Stadt Oberhausen, Spielplatz – Holten

Elgar Blitz, CARVE, Amsterdam

Neighbors and kids from youth center

Exhibition Emscherkunst 2012 Location: Oberhausen _ Holten

Year 2011–2013 Curator: Dr. Florian Matzner

Courtesy The City of Oberhasuen

Photo Apolonija Šušteršič, Sara Badovinac, Christine Wolf, R. Mensing

Content: A remodelled piece of land in-between the Bahnstrasse, Flugstrasse and Emscherkanal, including the design of new youth centre, skate pool , and children’s playground, with a participatory performative action – BAUCAMP during the summer exhibition 2013.

The PLAY_LAND project aims at interacting with the existing conditions at the site in Oberhausen-Holten, which is a green area with a small youth centre and a children’s playground. As part of the Emschergenossenschaft landscape revitalization project, the assigned building activity prescribes a specific dynamic at this location, which the project PLAY_LAND uses as a means to create a new social biotope that encourages users to become involved in the process of change. Namely, the Emschergenossenschaft landscape revitalization project planned to build a clearing pipe parallel to the Emscher River on this specific location which meant that the site needed to be re-organized, the old youth centre needed to be replaced and the playground remodelled.

The project I proposed is comprised of a working process with several components: on-site research; workshops bringing together users and experts; an official building process; a performative building process – BAUCAMP during the EMSCHERKUNST.2013 exhibition; and finally, a process of construction leading to the revitalization of the landscape.

The processual character of the project brought together various professionals and non-professionals who engaged with a particular situation in time. Together, the participants exchanged knowledge through their work and created a symbiosis between different user groups (youth, children, small children, parents, neighbours) – vital aspects of planning that should be part of the building process of the new youth centre together with the children’s playground. These two entities existing at the site are supposed to find coexistence, become intertwined, interconnected and work together to share the ground on the basis of solidarity and cooperation.